Boise Christmas Part 2 2024 / January 8, 2025 by David Jacobo

This time around I tried going out and taking more landscape and nature type pictures in order to practice my long exposure using an ND filter as well just experimenting with post editing. First off is Eagle Island State Park. It’s exciting to go to new places but then you realize that you have a lot of exploring to do before you take your first picture. 80% of time you spend is just merely looking around. Which is fine if you have all the time in the world. I didn’t.

I didn’t realize that most of the area was actually a disc golf course. Not my cup of tea when it comes to exploring a natural area (I always feel like I’m gonna get hit in the head when I’m trying to figure out my settings). But it was a lot quieter than I expected. A lot of my time was spent during the later part of the afternoon. I would love to come back and do more bird shots some time.

This Hairy Woodpecker got so close I wasn’t sure I had enough time to capture it with my hulking 200-500mm. I also had to manually focus on it which made me extra hot and fogged up my glasses while looking through the viewfinder. I think I did okay. I’m definitely learning to be patient while I am in a spot, waiting for birds and wildlife to feel comfortable enough to get close.

Always a sucker for downed trees and their curved tangles. 50mm f2.5 1/2500 sec. 800 ISO

To be honest I am not sure what this is except maybe some sort of dam

50mm 1/4000 sec. f/1.4 800 ISO

Panorama stitch of the view of the foothills. Best viewed if you right click on the image to view in new tab.
210mm 1/100 sec. f/16 1600 ISO

My next stop was at Hyatt Hidden Lakes Reserve. But by that time it was getting really dark so I didn’t anticipate getting any more wildlife shots. I ended up trying out some more long exposure shots. The one below turned out to be the best of the bunch in my opinion.

Finally, I was able to head to a creek near where we were staying at my parent’s in law the next day. A lot of ducks for sure. I tried my best at getting one or two in flight but I’m still no pro at capturing birds in flight with my 200-500mm. So I practiced more long exposure and some duck posing

BONUS SQUIRREL BELOW

Boise Christmas 2024 / January 2, 2025 by David Jacobo

Hi. This is my first blog post. I’m not sure why i’m doing this except that maybe I’m a little tired of posting on IG and feeling like the algorithm isn’t what it used to be. I also think it’s nice to give context to photographs rather than just posting them willy nilly. I’m not an avid writer but maybe this is good practice. Who knows, perhaps something good will come of it.

Part 1

There weren’t a lot of opportunities for photographs on the way there because we drove 7.5 hours or so straight to Boise and didn’t wanna drive in the dark that much as we left kinda late. Only stops for our baby and bathroom breaks. We really wanted to get past Meacham and the Blues in case of snow during daylight but it turned out to be a breeze. Honestly traveling with an infant is 5 times harder and slower. Simply because you have to bring so many things to accommodate him.

In the future I would love to stop and get some shots around this area. The mountainous terrain is beautiful.

Rest area. iphone 15 pro. Right outside Baker City, Oregon.

After this it was night time driving all the way. Not my favorite. But even after years of driving, I’m finally learning that snacks really help you stay awake. Not sure why it took me that long to figure out. We arrived around 8pm because of the time difference.

*Our second night we went out and roamed downtown. A lot of Christmas happenings. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to photograph everything or just enjoy it. I did the latter.*

To our surprise we found a taco stand nearby after having a couple drinks at a very christmas-fied bar. My partner, Sarita, is from Boise and per her experience, Boise has always been a very white dominant populated area. She was often one of the few if not only person of color in any place she visited. However twenty years later it seems that there’s been an increasing number of Latinos moving here. Our guess was due to the ranching immigrant that lived around the area and their kids moving into town. Boise is known as one of the fastest growing cities in the USA so it makes sense.

He was literally dancing because he just got his tacos.

Taco stand Boise downtown. Panasonic Lumix LX100II.
There was a vibrant club scene nearby and everyone was happy for some very good tacos. We gave them 8/10. I regretted not getting my own instead of sharing with her.

That’s it for now! Come back for part 2 soon!